Times Of Night
This is the second book in the Pitch Black Series. Notes *If you haven't read Darkening Deaths, then do so now, if not you will be totally confused. *You would know this is a book about Eaglepaw *If you didn't know who Eaglepaw is then read the first book XD Prologue A shadow tom saw a small puddle of blood. "Our first clue on our trail...." The tom smirked. Another tom padded up. "On our way to the descendant of SkyClan?" The shadowy tom grunted. "More likely a passed down generation, we don't even know if the name has changed." "True." Growled the other. "Let's keep going." He started to pad off. The shadowy tom licked a small drop of blood and let it sink on his tongue before continuing. Chapter One Eaglepaw flinched awake, his fur was straight off. "What's happening!" He cried. Soon brown feathers started to pile on him, his paws turned flat. and they grew brown feathers. "Agh!" He cried. Soon his hind-legs started to turn to talons, his muzzle became pointed and orange, his ears disspeared, his head turned white, his eyes became small, and he squawked. "What am I!" He squawked. Smokepaw poked his head from the apprentices den, eyes hazy. Eaglepaw turned his head to Smokepaw. Smokepaw gasped. "Eagle!" He cried. Warriors burst from their dens. "An Eagle!" The gasped. Sootfoot came out first. "I'll kill him!" Eaglepaw's eyes widened as Sootfoot began to climb the tree, it didn't take long before he got to the branch Eaglepaw was on. He slowly edged toward him, and closer and closer. He snarled. "Im going to kill you..." Sparrowfur looked wide-eyes below. Eaglepaw backed up, but Sootfoot creeped up closer. Eaglepaw almost fell but he clutched himself to the branch. Wait.... If Im an eagle, can't I fly? He soon smiled and narrowed his eyes, he let go of the branch and fell, but soon took flight. Sootfoot cried. "Back in your dens! He's going to attack!" "Last thing I'll do is attack!" Eaglepaw squawked, but nobody understood him. He soon flew high into the sky, into the night. He grinned as he got close to a cloud. His wings outstetched farther and he spiraled into the cloud. As he came out the cloud was all twisted but his feathers were soaked. He shurgged while flying. "Oh well. This is still so cool!" He laughed and darted down only to catch flight again. He heard another squawk. "Hello? Anyone out there?" A squawk called. He swallowed and turned around flying a but slower. There was a beating of wings. Uh oh! Chapter Two Something was flying above him. "Don't hurt me!" He cried. An eagle appeared beside him. He gasped. The eagle laughed. "Hurt you? We're only hatchlings! A couple of moons old perhaps." Eaglepaw felt relief flood over him and he flew to a tree and perched on a branch. The other eagle sat beside him. "Im Kokoro, what's your name?" Kokoro asked. "Im Eag- Im Kaze..." Eaglepaw lied. I gotta make sure I keep my identity a secret.... Kokoro smiled. "Nice name, but did your mother let you come out here? I had to get permission." Eaglepaw looked at his talons. "Im an orphan Eagle you could say..." "Wow..... That's weird, mother eagles usually don''t abandon their young."'' Eaglepaw shurgged. "That's my mother for ya, always leaving me behind." He looked around. Kokoro gently laid her wing on his shoulder. Eaglepaw looked up and blushed, his feathers ruffling. Eaglepaw shivered. "Cold." Kokoro laughed. "No duh! We're high in the air, it's suppose to be cold!" "I guess so..." Eaglepaw nodded. Kokoro blinked at the setting moon, seeing one of the stars dim. "Uh oh... I better get to my nest..." She looked over to Eaglepaw. Eaglepaw coughed. "Oh, yeah..." Kokoro smiled. "See you tomorrow night?" "Oh, okay!" Eaglepaw blushed. Kokoro looked to the sky and took wing. "Goodbye Kaze!" She called out. "Goodbye Kokoro......." Eaglepaw watched her. He felt a clump of feathers dissapear from him. "WHa...?" He looked shocked. Soon a clot of light brown fur appeared in it's spot. His eyes widened, his feathers were dissapearing and he was growing, his beak turned round, his fur came back, and his wings and talons became paws. He was aching as he clung to the top of the tree. "Help!" He cried. "Help!" Chapter Three Nobody heard him. He closed his eyes and started to climb down. Once he felt his paws hit the ground he saw it was light outside. "Finally." He groaned, and started to pad back to camp. He peeked in the entrance, the only ones up were Sootfoot and Sparrowfur. He started to pad in. Sparrowfur looked up. "Eaglepaw? Where were you?" Eaglepaw sighed. "Couldn't sleep." Sootfoot smirked. "With the eagles?" "What!?" Eaglepaw gasped. "Calm down, Im just kidding...." Sootfoot laughed. Eaglepaw sighed. "Im kinda not in the mood." Sootfoot rolled his eyes. "Fine kiddo." He padded back over to Sparrowfur and the two padded off. Eaglepaw felt a breath of relief release from him. "Finally." He muttered. He thought about Kokoro, he relised it must be night-time when he would turn into an eagle. But then he thought more about the she-eagle. She seemed so nice, why would anyone hunt these friendly creatures? They only attacked if they were attacked. Eaglepaw sighed. He really was a birdy boy now. The bullies could make fun of him for real now. Eaglepaw looked to the fresh-kill pile. He sighed when he saw a robin. He wanted just to turn into an eagle and attack. Eaglepaw shook his head and thought about Kokoro and how she said, mother eagles usually don't abandon their young. Was it very unlikely for eagles to really give up on their own babies? Eaglepaw would just have to find out. Chapter Four "Let go!" Kokoro screeched. "Suck it up hatchling." '' ''"I am fully fledged!" "Sure, and I am a hawk." Another eagle, bigger than Kokoro, rolled it's eyes as he clamped down his talons on Kokoro's wings. Kokoro let out another screech. "Stop scratching at my wings! I need to fly!" "Never again until a full moon cycle. The scent of that other eagle was bad enough!" Slash...Slash...Blood splattered the nest as Kokoro's fully fledged wings were clipped then destroyed, she lay crippled across the nest. "Kokoro!" Eaglepaw jutted awake, glaring around he saw that he was lying in his favorite tree again. What did that dream mean? Was Kokoro really in trouble? The splashing of blood...The talons that raked her delicate, soft wings....Who would do such a thing? Unless, that male eagle was her father. It was a male he expected, for it looked much broader, and had a wider wingspan than Kokoro would ever have. Or would have no that her wings were destroyed. Eaglepaw shook away the thought. "It was just a dream, no way it was true..." "Eaglepaw..." Smokepaw's voice shivered into Eaglepaw's ears. Eaglepaw glanced down at the ashamed tom. Smokepaw looked up. "Sootfoot doesn't like how I've been treating you Birdy boy. So...I'm sorry." He swallowed hard, like it was a harsh thing just to say sorry to him. Eaglepaw couldn't believe it! Of course he called him Birdy boy in it, but Smokepaw apologized! He said the words- I'm sorry. And this was something to celebrate, Kokoro would be thrilled to know. Smokepaw, he would call him a crow that was bullying Eaglepaw, finally was forced into apology. Finally the feather's had struck onto his paws that were fledged wings. Taking flight he made it up to the tree he and Kokoro were in last night. He waiting until the lowering of the moon. Kokoro hadn't arrived. When the sun started to rise, Eaglepaw flew down to the ground. As he shifted easily back to cat, his mind swirled with thoughts. But before he could even think of anything else, the smell of dim blood was in the air. It had the scent of Kokoro.... "I have to save her!"